Knife-setting appliance



. N. A. LOCKWOOD. KNIFE SETTINGAPPLIANCE.

- APPLICATION FILED nov.2z. m9.

Patented May 4, 1920.1

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APPLICATION mm nov. 22, 1919.

Patenfod May 4,1920;

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UK M II IJLacl'u/wd a J A A A UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

NELSON A. LOCKWOOD, OF OGDEN, UTAH.

KNIFE-SETTING APPLIANCE.

Application filed November 22, 1919.

To (All tC/LO/lt it may comzcwi:

Be it known that I, NnLsoN A. LOOKWOOD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ogden, in the county of \Veber and State of Utah, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Knife-Setting Appliances and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others, skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in knife setting appliances and, to specify a main sphere of its utility, it may be said to be primarily devised with reference to the class of corrugated cossette slicing knives which are embodied in certain forms of beet-root cutting machines that include a vertically disposed rapidly revoluble container drum, equipped with a peripheral series of internal knives, for handling large quantities of beets with or without a continuous feed, although. the improvements may later be found to be equally susceptible for use in other analogous relations.

It is understood that the object of slicing the beetroots is for the purpose of providing comparatively thin pieces having the largest feasible external or extraction sur face, so that the cells thereof will give up their maximum sugar contents more readily during treatment in the diffusion batteries.

The mounting of the knives in the ma chine for slicing the beets is accomplished by means of a series of say about eight or nine knife-blocks or knife-frames, each of which accommodates approximately six knives, and these knife-blocks when loaded with their set knives and fitted to the drum become in reality the periphery thereof. However, the knives become dulled rapidly in action so that the whole set of blocks must be frequently removed from the machine and replaced by a set having sharpened knives, and to provide for a substantial continuity of operations it is obviously desirable to have a plurality of sets of replaceable blocks with a corresponding surplus of knives for reloading purposes.

heretofore practised, the operative places the blocks on an ordinary work bench and bolts the sharpened knives in position without any attention whatsoever as to their being in proper alinement, as it would be very difficult to manually adjust them for that purpose. As these knives have corru- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 4, 1920.

Serial No. 339,794.

gated cutting sections, preferably triangular in cross-section, which follow each other in circumferential series, it is manifest that abnormal cossettes will result when thev cutting sections of one knife are out of line with those of another knife, being cut thicker on one side than on the other; but it is extremely important that the cossettes, or hollow prismatic beet chips, should be of the same ribbon-like thickness on both sides, as a greatloss is otherwise experienced in the sugar contents exuded by diffusion.

The primary object of the instant invention, therefore, is to provide simple and effective mechanical centering means, functioning to positively and accurately spot the knives so that their cutting sections will be congruently alined circumferentially and thus insure evenly sliced cossettes.

A secondary object is to provide a revolving work: table, which is not only equipped with said mechanical centering means but which also embodies suitably associated trays for conveniently supplying the sharpened knives and the bolts to be used in connection therewith in reloading operations, which afford obvious facilities to the operative and results in an economy of labor and time.

These as well as other objects and advantages will. be so clearly apparent, however, as incidental to the following disclosure, that it would only be undesirable surplusage to further enlarge upon them initially, and with these prefacing remarks reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, illustrating a practical embodiment of the improvements, in which drawings- Figure 1 is a \ertica-l sectional view of my improved. apparatus taken substantially along the line l-l of Fig. 2, but with the knife centering head and an associated knife block shown in elevation;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary plan view, partly in transverse section substantially along the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a detail inside plan View of a knife block or frame, with its associated knives, as employed with certain types of rotary beet cutters, but which. forms no part of the present invention and is only illustrative of its use;

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view taken substantially along the line 4:--4: of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view taken substantially along the line 5-5 of Fig. 3, which also shows the disposition of a block and its knives when revolving clockwise, at the lower portion of the drum, in cutting position; and

Fig. 6 illustrates end views of cossettes abnormally and correctly cut with reference to the possible maximum extraction of their sugar contents.

10 designates the base of a standard 11 which has a vertical bore 12, surmounted by a recessed head 13 to receive an annularly grooved bearing plate 14, providing a lower race-Way for anti-friction balls 15.

16 designates the bottom wall of a horizontally disposed drum member, having a depending hub 17 provided with an upwardly tapering bore 18. The bottom wall has a suitably formed annular flange 19 cooperating with an annular flanged rim 20, supporting spaced vertical posts 21 and providing an annular recess 22, which may be externally bounded by segmental bars 24, for mounting set-screws 23 intermediate of the posts 21, although obviously the portions 24 may be an integral part of the rim 20.

So far no claims are made to this drum element per 86, which may be and is shown substantially of the same structure, excepting for its horizontal disposition and the omission of one wall, as the drums of the beet cutting machines known to the beet sugar industry as the Maguin French) and the Binkley (United States) types, reference being made for instance to the United States patent to Alfred Maguin #1,169,981 of February 1, 1916 and to Robah J. Binkley #1,238,982 of September 4, 1917, as employing revolving drums embodying the mounting of corrugated slicing knives as hereinbefore mentioned.

25 designates retaining members for the ends of the knife blocks, inserted within the drum between posts, which members are suitably secured to, or formed integrally with, the posts 21 and project laterally beyond their radial vertical faces.

26 indicates the bottom of an axis post, having a headed lower end 27, mounted in the bore 12 and extended upwardly to provide a tapering axis section 28, fitting within the tapering bore 18, the cylindrical axis section 29 and a. reduced cylindrical upper end section 30. A lower bearing collar is shown at 31, which may form a part of an antifriction hearing if desired, centrally apertured to pass over the axis part 29 and supporting a sleeve 32 rotatably mounted thereon. Anupper collar is shown at 33 and likewise a nut 34 associated with a threaded upper portion of the part 29.

indicates a hanger head having an upwardly disposed hollow nipple 3G, closed at its top, and a downwardly disposed annular flange 37, the hollow nipple housing the upper end of the reduced section of the axis post and being revolubly supported thereby, preferably through the interposition of ball bearing elements 38. The an- 11 ular depending flange 37 suitably suspends a pair of trays 39-39 adapted to contain. the sharpened knives and their attaching bolts, in segregated relation and in convenient position for handling by the operative.

40 indicates a radial hollow arm of the revolubly mounted sleeve 32, open at its free end and provided with a longitudinal side slot 41 and an upper bearing lug element 42, to which latter an operating lever 43 is pivoted as at 44. The lever has a depending end 45 slightly slotted vertically to receive the end of a transverse connecting pin 46, riding in the slot 41 and carried by a bar 47 which-is reciprocatingly housed by the hollow arm 40.

The bar 47 is adapted for actuating the knife alining means. This is provided for by suitably formed centering heads, one of which is detachably carried by the outer end of said reciprocating bar. These heads are provided with a corrugated engaging face or faces of a form or pitch congruent with the corrugated sections of the particular knives to be set, and these beet cutter knives are generally termed twenty-seven division, thirty-division or thirty-six division knives, or the equivalent, meaning the number of cutter elements to a knife as all of the knives are of the same width.

Although not specifically limited thereto, in the drawings I have shown such a centering heac as comprising a fitting boss 48 having a pairof vertical webs 49 and a forward facing member carrying an upper and a lower projecting element 51 provided with a serrated face, the serrations of which lie in horizontal planes. vThe head is secured in place by a taper pin 52 adapted to be inserted in registering apertures in the boss 48 and the outer end of the bar 47.

The foregoing covers the actual elements combined in my improvements, but before setting forth the manner of their operation, and to clearly understand the same, it may be desirable and perhaps necessary to enlarge upon the mounting of the corrugated beet cutting knives, for the proper alin'ing of which the invention is especially devised.

The knife blocks comprise segmentally curved frame sections, adapted for insertion in the beet cutter drum, embodying side walls and cross bars 56, the latter being formed with a vertical web surmounted by a forwardly projecting fiat transverse support 57 and a rearwardly projecting transverse support 58 having a concaved upper face with slots opening downwardly therefrom to house adjustable swinging bolts 60 connected with cut -regulating guide bars 61 having convex bottomsrotatably seated in said concaved supports. The knives consist of elongated flat bases having an upwardly offset and forwardly projecting series of corrugated (in this case serrated) hollow slicing members 63 terminating in forward cutting edges. The knife bases have a. pair of rear edge slots (55 converging inwardly and cooperating with longitudinal slots (34;, in the base supports 57, and with anchor bolts (36, for se curing the knives on their supports 57. Seating means for set-screws are provided intermediate of the ends of the outer edge faces of the sides and suitable means are indicated by a pair of threaded studs 67 having seating recesses 68 in their heads, although in my machine only one of these seating recesses is actually engaged by a set screw for that particular block.

The knives are mounted in endwise pairs on these supports and, as before stated, under prior methods no attempt whatever is made to bring the cutting edges of the several pairs of each block, and hence those of the several blocks themselves, into con gruent alinement. For instance, viewing Fig. 3 as observed with reference to the cutting position of Fig. 5, it will be noted that where the central pair of knives are out of line with reference to the end pairs, which is exaggeratively shown by the closed and open end edge line 69 and 70, the beet chips will be cut heavy on one side and light on the other, as indicated by the cossette a, whereas the rear pair of knives being in proper line with the forward pair, but immediately following the central pair out of line, the beet chips will be cut heavy on the other side, as indicated by the cossette 7). Thus with this one bad adjustment only there results a plurality of series, across the machine, of abnormally cut chips, of at least two different forms, which is greatly augmented when the knives of other blocks are also out of line, for normal cossettes 0 will only occur when the cutting edges of the knives of the series are in congruent alinement circumferentially.

Operation.

From the foregoing replete description, the operation of the improvements should be fairly apparent but may be briefly set forth as follows 2- The blocks or frames to be reloaded with sharpened knives are first inserted around the peripheral space of the drum, in the same relative positions that they would occupy when placed in the drum of a revolv ing beet cutter marhine, excepting that my drum being disposed in horizontal plane, the knives when inserted in their blocks will be disposed vertically. The set screw 23 for each block is then tightened up against its seating recessed head 68 to first bring all of the blocks themselves into proper line, it being observed that one side wall 55 of each block is received by the annularly disposed recess 22 of the drum member.

The sets of knives are then placed in their respective blocks and bolted up lightly only, the operative bringing all of the blocks-toard him sequentially by revolving the drum manually. After all of the knives are thus loosely set in pairs in the several frames, the operative then. brings a pair of knives to a position opposed to the centering means, and upon actuation of the lever to theleft the serrations of the lugs 51 are forced up against the exterior serrated faces of the cutter sections 63, it being observed that these lugs 51 straddle the space 6970 between the contiguous end faces thereof.

Obviously, this operation will properly adjust that pair of knives, by drawing them together or slightly forcing them apart endwise as the case may be, and while the pair is thus pressed into position and held there, by the leverage action, the anchor bolts 66 of that pair are tightened up to securely fasten the knives against displacement on their support.

Each pair of knives is thus successively adjusted and firmly secured, either by revolving the drum to the position of the centering head or by swinging the latter to the positions of the knives serrations, and, as each pair of knives is adjusted by the same centering means, it follows that their cutting edges must necessarily register in circumferential alinement when their supporting blocks are inserted in series peripherally of the drum of a rotary beet cutter machine as described, with its paired set screws tightened up against their complementary seating studs 6768. I

To remove the loaded knife blocks from my drum, the method of inserting them is just reversed and by easing up on the setscrews 23 each block may be lifted up and out of the drum.

lVhile I have thus made a complete disclosure of a practical embodiment of my improvements, it may later be found to be de sirable or expedient to make minor altera tions or substitutions in the form and structural arrangement of elements. but without departing from the spirit of the invention. and it will be understood. therefore, that I do not limit myself necessarily to the exact details shown and described, excepting as they may come within the purview of the ensuing claims, when fairly interpreted in the light of the specification and understood equivalents.

hat I do claim, as new and patentable, is

1. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a main support adapted for the attachment of a series of removable supports, each mountingsets of suitably shaped slicing knives; of mechanical centering means, suitably associated with said main support and its attached knife supports, operable to positively adjust said knives in proper alinement on their supports, substantially as described.

2. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a horizontally revoluble main support adapted for the attachment of a series of removable sup aorts, each mounting sets of suitably shape slicing knives; of mechanical centering means, suitably associated with said main support and its attached knife supports, operable to positively adjust said knives in proper alinement on their supports; and revoluble trays for the convenient segregation of sharpened knives and their attaching bolts, substantially as described.

In knife setting appliances, the combination with a drum element, suitably formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral series of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated cross-section; of centering means, suitably associated with said drum element and its inserted segmental supports, operable to positively adjust said knives mechanically with their serial cutting edges congruently disposed circumferentially, sub stantially as described.

4. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a drum element, formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral series of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated crosssection; of means for centering said inserted segmental supports relatively to each other; and setting means, suitably associated with said drum element and its inserted segmental supports, operable to positively adjust said knives mechanically with their serial cutting edges congruently disposed circumferentially, substantially as described.

5. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a drum element, formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral se ries of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated cross section; of set screw elements for centering said inserted segmental supports relatively to each other; and setting means, suitably associated with said drum element and its inserted segmental supports, operable to positively adjust said knives mechanically with their serial cutting edges congruently disposed circumferentially, substantially as described.

6. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a drum element, suitably formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral series of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated cross section; of setting means, suitably associated with said drum element, operable toward and away from said inserted segmental supports and embooying a corrugated face disposed for contactual registration with corrugations of said slicing members, substantially as described.

7. In knife setting appliances, the combi nation with a drum element, suitably formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral series of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated cross-section; of setting means, suitably associated with said drum element, operable toward and away from said inserted segmental supports and embodying a plurality of spaced lugs provided with corrugated faces disposed for contactual regis tration with complementarycorrugations of said slicing members, substantially as described.

8. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a drum element, formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral series of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated crosssection; of means for centering said inserted segmental supports relatively to each other; and setting means, suitably associated with said drum element, operable toward and away from said inserted segmental supports and embodying a corrugated face disposed for contactual registration with complementary corrugations of said slicing members, substantially as described.

9. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a drum element, formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral series of segmental supports mounting a plurality of sets of knives in endwise pairs and each having slicing members of corrugated crosssection; of means for centering said inserted segmental supports relatively to each other; and setting means, suitably associated with said drum element, operable toward and away from said segmental supports and embodying a plurality of spaced lugs, for straddling the said slicing members in endwise pairs, provided with corrugated faces disposed for contactual registration with complementary corrugations thereof, sub stantially as described.

10. In knife setting appliances, the combination with a drum element, formed for the removable insertion of a peripheral series of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated crosssection; of setting means, suitably associated with said drum element, operable toward and away from said inserted segmental supports and embodying a corrugated face disposed for contactual registration with complementary corrugations of said slicing members; and lever mechanism for actuat ing said setting means and holding same temporarily in setting position, substantially as described.

11. In knife setting appliances, including a suitably mounted elongated vertical axis post and a drum element, horizontally rotatable thereon, formed for the removable insertion of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated cross-section; in combination with an arm pivotally encompassing said axis post and extending radially within said drum element; a bar carried by said arm to reciprocate longitudinally thereof; setting means carried by said bar and embodying a corrugated face disposed for contactual registration with complementary corrugations of said slicing members; and means for actuating said bar and its setting means radially of said drum, substantially as described.

12. In knife setting appliances, including a suitably mounted elongated vertical axis post and a drum element, horizontally rotatable thereon, formed for the removable insertion of segmental supports mounting knives having slicing members of corrugated crosssection; in combination with tray suspending means rotatably supported at the top of said axis post; an arm pivotally encompassing said axis post and extending radially within said drum element; setting means reciprocatingly supported by said radial arm and embodying a corrugated face disposed for contactual registration with complementary corrugations of said slicing members; and means for actuating said settingmeans radially of said drum, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature.

NELSON A. LOCK'IVOOD. 

